The Journal

Issue date: 2/1/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Jamie Ford Scott Jensen, director of forensics and associate professor of speech communications studies oversaw the tournament Jan. 26 through Jan. 28 from the University Center while toting his son, Eddie, around the building.

Media Credit: Audrey Burke Ashley Taylor, Webster University's only competitor during last weekend's debate tournament, gives a speech as opposition leader during a debate about illegal immigration into the United States.

Forty-two schools from 19 states as far-reaching as New Hampshire and Louisiana invaded Webster's campus Jan. 26 through 28 for the ninth annual Gorlok Gala Forensics Tournament.


Scott Jensen, associate professor and director of debate and forensics, said this year's debate and forensics tournament was the biggest in Webster's history.


Jensen said Webster's team did not compete in the tournament, in order to focus on their hosting duties.


"The ethics in the forensics world is that, if you can give back to the community, you do," Jensen said. "The most common way is hosting a tournament. When hosting, our approach we take is that we don't compete."


He said only one Webster student, Ashley Taylor, competed as the partner for a Boise State University student who didn't have one. Taylor, a senior philosophy major, competed in a parliamentary-style debate.


"You walk into the room, are assigned a position and are given 15 minutes to prepare," Taylor said. "It's all about logic and argument. It's not what you think, but what you're supposed to think."


For some of the school teams participating in the tournament, the Gorlok Gala is one of the top tournaments in the country.


"It's one of the top three to four national-caliber tournaments," said Joe Dudek, a sophomore mathematics and philosophy major at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania.


Sarah Staats, a sophomore political science major at Garden City Community College in Kansas, said the competition is one of the reasons so many schools came this past weekend.


"It's a respected tournament," Staats said. "One of the top competitive teams, Western Kentucky University, is here. If they go to a tournament that means (the tournament) is good."


The Western Kentucky University team said they came to compete in the tournament because of the numerous debate and speech styles available to participate in. Students competed in Lincoln-Douglas and parliamentary-style debate, public speaking, oral interpretation and limited preparation speech.


"It's a large debate tournament," Keyon Shokarie, a senior political communications major at Western Kentucky University, said. "It's a chance to do all of our speech debates."


On Jan. 28, awards for individual event, debate and overall placing were announced at the Sheraton Westport Chalet Hotel. Indivdual event is awarded to the school with the highest individual scores. The debate award goes to the school whose debate teams (of two people) scored the highest and the school's team who places the highest in each event wins the overall award. Southeastern Illinois College placed first for individual events. For debate, Western Kentucky University won and McKendree College in Lebanon, Ill., placed first for overall performance.


Jensen said the tournament went well, and he was pleased nothing drastic happened.


"I was happy with this happy weekend," Jensen said. "A tournament that size can go wrong in so many ways. The squad and staff pulled together and it went off beautifully."


From Jan. 2 through 4 the debate and forensics team will be heading to two tournaments at Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina, Kan.

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